When I want to record a Public Domain book, I often buy a cheap hardback or paperback copy on eBay or Abebooks. I don’t mind destroying the book to create my PDF.
The first step is disassembly:
- Drew removes the book cover with a box cutter.
- He then would slice a sheet or a small group of sheets away from the adhesive binding in the spine of the book until all sheets are free from the binding.
- He would pull off any glue residue and hanging chads.
- To make the pages a consistent size for my scanner, he repeatedly would align small groups of pages in a regular paper cutter and trim the binding edge.
This process could take 45 minutes or so, depending on the book page count and the strength of the binding adhesive.
We just bought this 12″ heavy duty paper trimmer which drastically reduces the time needed for steps 3 and 4 above.
After removing the book cover, this time Drew inserted the bound pages into the 12″ cutter. With one smooth motion, this trimmer chopped off the adhesive spine, leaving all the pages loose with an even, straight edge ready for feeding into my scanner!
This disassembly job only took about 1 minute! It took more time to position and clamp the book into the cutter than to liberate the pages from the book cover.
I’ll scan the pages in my trusty Epson ES-500W scanner (replaced by the ES-500W II). It scans 35 double-sided pages per minute, collating the pages into a PDF.
I do have some extremely rare books for which I paid too much money to consider disassembling them. I’ll leave those books intact and use the CamScanner app to photograph their pages and create my PDF. The original books can hold court on my bookshelf for years to come.
Regardless of whether I made the PDF using my scanner or the app, I run Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and file compression on it. You’ll find my PDF Optimization instructions in Step 3 of Planning Your Trip to Public Domain World.
With an optimized PDF as my script, I’m now ready to prep and record the book.
Is there a reason you don’t just use the version available on gutenberg.org?
Hi, Sara! Thanks for the good question!
The Public Domain books I record aren’t on Gutenberg, and a digital copy may not be available anywhere.
Sometimes, a book is available in Kindle format. I may use a Kindle book for a pre-read to see if I want to create an audiobook from it. I don’t like to record from a Kindle edition as it doesn’t allow me any flexibility to mark the text.
The book I’m about to produce, narrate, and publish doesn’t become PD until 1 January. I plan to release the audiobook the day the text becomes Public Domain.
I have 2 more books in my immediate queue with mid-century copyright dates. These titles might seem like they are still under copyright, but my research shows they are already in the Public Domain because the copyright owner didn’t renew the copyright within its first 28 years or failed some other aspect of the copyright rules.
In fact, about 74% of the millions of books published in the mid-1900s have fallen into the Public Domain for the same reason! Once we excavate this buried treasure, we probably will need to create the PDF for our recording script.
Karen
I’m curious. How do you decide which books are worth this considerable effort to turn into audiobooks? It must take selling a LOT of copies to even make back the cost for your time!
I plan to try to do my own novel trilogy when it is finished – though I would rather have the first two for sale (as are the novels) already – but realistically may have to face not being able to do it. Aging rapidly here!
Right now I doubt enough would sell to be worth it, as my marketing isn’t going anywhere. But that’s also a chicken vs. the egg detail as books with audiobooks are more likely to sell.
Hi, Alicia! Thanks for the good question!
My considerations about audiobook productions are completely different than those of a contemporary author who is evaluating her own work.
Since I choose texts which are in the Public Domain, they are at least 63 years old and possibly much older.
It’s easy to discover whether a mid-century author is still popular and if her book is still selling and relevant. No sales are ever guaranteed for an audiobook, but ratings and reviews help me guesstimate an audiobook’s potential sales.
In addition, I might perform a low-performing Public Domain book for reasons such as:
— The story or author is important, potentially with a tie-in to current events.
— It allows me to work in a new genre.
— It would be a fine addition to my portfolio.
— I can promote it for years to come, meaning I always have work I can discuss with producers and share on social media to maintain visibility.
If you decide to make audiobooks from your books, I hope you won’t even consider an AI/virtual voice. You took the time and creativity to write the story and create your art. As a professional audiobook narrator, I am skilled at analyzing an author’s printed words and interpreting the subtext, the underlying meaning.
This article describes the work of a narrator and the pitfalls of replacing a human narrator with a machine.
I hope this info helps. Best wishes for your success!
Karen